


It's not Game Over 'til I say so

by GraceEliz



Series: Avengers, Bats, Birds [2]
Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Batman and associated fandoms, Captain Marvel (2019), DC - Fandom, MCU, The Avengers and associated fandoms
Genre: Characters and relationships will be added, Endgame AU, Endgame!!!, Gen, I am so sorry, MCU/DCU crossover, Potential Captain Marvel spoilers, a bit spoilery but not actually Endgame compliant, canon who's canon, character death is offscreen but, mostly Marvel canon, what's a timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-11-23 07:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18148637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraceEliz/pseuds/GraceEliz
Summary: Set as a direct continuation of Captain Marvel.***MCU SPOILERS THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING***Steve is desperate. A Gothamite turned up out of the blue a few days ago, and the pager stopped. There is no plan. Now that this woman has arrived, well..... He'll take anything on offer.





	1. Appearance of a Saviour

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't hurt me.  
> This is in the same 'verse as "If you're Iron Man then who are we?" and, well, yeah. I went to see Captain Marvel and it all kinda escaped. Enjoy?

“Where’s Fury.”

Steve will deny jumping in place, but the woman who appears (behind) in front of him is most certainly someone he’s never met. She looks dangerous, with messy blonde curls and a very heroic looking suit, and he’s reminded of Tony’s friend’s son Timothy, who once looked through him into his soul with bright blue eyes highlighted by dark bags and announced that Steve would never be a true leader until he stopped letting guilt rule him. This woman – a superhero, an alien? – has that same hardness. She must have been forged in fire and starbursts for that particular look. (Steve is aware that he is the opposite; he has some type of alien DNA and he is ice-tempered in place of fire-forged.) He trades a stressed look with Nat, and takes a fortifying breath. Grief unavoidably colours his voice as he tells her, “Fury’s dead. We’ve been waiting for the pager to get through to someone. You...well, you’re basically our last hope.” The woman looks conflicted, undeniable proof of the apocalypse warring with the same soul-deep denial they all carry. Nat continues, “Other heroes have been arriving here, but you’re on a different level. We have...well, we don’t have a plan. Just desperation.” Nat swallows as she fixes the woman with hard desperate eyes. If this woman refuses to help them.....

The woman looks carefully at them all. “I will help. Fury....he was family. Whoever did this is going to pay with their lives,” she spits, “I will not let this continue.” Steve nods grimly in thanks. Perhaps now they have more of a fighting chance. The echoing thup-scr-thup of a lab door opening and closing interrupts their shared pain, Rhodes’ distinctive tread announcing his presence. He turns the corner into the room, the tall heavy-set Gothamite who arrived three days ago at his side – and stops still. Steve must have frowned, because the woman turns around to greet the newcomer. Their eyes meet, electricity fills the air, and Rhodes’ fill with tears.

He tries to speak a few times, managing to gasp out, “Carol? Carol. Oh my god, Carol.” The woman – Carol, Steve reminds himself – lets out a sob at his voice and the stasis the room is held in breaks and she falls towards Rhodes. They clung together like they’re two remnants of a shattered universe or maybe they are the last two people alive, nastily bruised and damaged but miraculously not broken. Maybe there was a chance after all, thought Steve, no longer crushing the hope curling in his stomach. The time for miracles is when there is no hope left but that in a higher power. 

The young man, the Gothamite, fidgets somewhat. After a minute or so of whispers between Rhodes and Carol he clears his throat. Carol steps back from Rhodes, wiping her eyes. She smiles tremulously at Rhodes. “Jim, I... God, it’s been so long. I missed you.” Rhodes smiles softly, running his hand over her hair. He shakes his head, eyes filled with an almost-forgotten wonder, “It’s enough that you’re here now. I always knew I’d not die before seeing you again. Tones called me a sap, but I knew.” The apparently old attachment between the two seems to be strengthening, re-forging, by the minute. The Gothamite mountain of a man makes another small noise, but this sounds almost like a signal. Steve feels the frown return (he hadn’t noticed it leave, how long since it last left?). Carol whips her attention to him, and almost stumbles. Her eyes widen, her breath catches in her throat as if she’s seen a ghost. The Gothamite gives a small wave. “Hi, Captain. I, uh, I went home. My Dad... You were right. He just wanted me to come home again,” he shrugs sheepishly. Carol looks stunned. A ghost from her past, then, thinks Steve, and wonders when the artistically inclined narrative started providing metaphors and similes again in his head. Once again obviously struggling for words, she manages to choke out, “You.. You’re a Gotham Bat. Red Hood is a Gotham Bat. I... Oh my God that makes so much sense. You... Huh.” 

She comes to a realisation, Steve can see it in the way her posture changes minutely: her shoulders draw back up as her chin rises and her spine straightens; sparks crackle over her suit like lightning. “Whoever did this is going to die.” The man smirks at the certainty in her voice. No humour is present in his face, just cruelty, and coldness, and certainty. He locks rock-hard blue-green eyes with Carol. “My Dad is dead. My sisters and brothers are missing, or dead. But my _Dad_ ,” his rumbling voice becomes a snarl, “that’s the worst bit. Because now there is no one who can stop me killing my way through whoever is responsible for this until I get him back. I love my brothers, and I’d go to hell for my sisters. My Dad, though? _There is literally nothing I won’t do._ ”

Steve peeks at Nat to see shock, and hope, bloom across her face. This is the most they’ve heard the Gothamite say in one go, which is why they’ve Al been calling him ‘Gothamite’ in place of a name. Bruce, stood on the edge of Steve’s peripheral vision, allows a smile to curl the edge of his lips. He’s the one to finally break the silence by saying, “Well, Jason Todd-Wayne, I can safely say that I am one hundred percent supportive of that. Your Dad, and family, might be slightly disapproving of the means but I have a feeling they’ll let extreme violence slide.” The man – no, Steve reminds himself, Jason - smiles. Carol looks stunned, and whips around to face the Gothami- Jason. “The Batman is _Bruce Wayne?????? _” she shrieks the name, sounding as horrified as Steve was when he found out about how long it took for the Government to give black people the vote. This information... Bruce Wayne the Batman? That’s almost beyond belief, but what isn’t believable these days. The world got halved. Captain Carol whoever-she-is has superpowers and knows Fury enough to class him as family. Bruce Banner clearly knows the Waynes. Carol and Rhodes apparently have a history. Heh. What next?__

____

____

What indeed, murmurs the voice in Steve’s head. He sighs aloud. If the voice is back there’ll be no peace even in the depths of his own mind. “You’ll be needing a room, Captain?” he asks. She looks uncertain, like the world moved an inch to the right between one blink and the next. _Yeah well,_ grumps the Voice – and yippee, grouses Steve, he’s given it a capital letter and it’s using italics – _she can get in line_. Rhodes takes the prevalent confusion in stride ( _heh_ ) and announces, “Why don’t we all go eat, since that’s why we came in here, and work things out over a decent meal? The Gotham- Jason cooked.” He grimaces apologetically for forgetting Jason’s name, and takes Carol’s hand gently in his. His smile reminds Steve of sorrows finally allayed and the first step in recovering a broken heart, fragile as February blossom and just as welcome, but Carol shares it, and they move out of the room. Jason sighs and bows dramatically. “Grubs up,” he rumbles in a voice eerily like JARVIS’ would be if it was pitched an octave or so lower. Bruce offers Nat his arm, as he always does, and she rolls her eyes but accepts, as she always does, and they leave the lab. Thup-scr-thup. Jason levels a look at Steve. They’re almost exactly the same height and size, Jason perhaps a shade shorter, a shadow or several heavier, but in most cases they are equals. He cracks a smirk – familiar, now, in the sadness and sarcasm they both wear like old shirts, worn soft – and indicates Steve should leave first. The Voice somehow stays quiet, and so Steve mocks a bow with an answering sneer of fake superiority, and the two soldiers leave the lab together surrounded by silent laughter and the promise that no matter what, they will get their families back. Brothers-in-arms do after all have one of the strongest bonds.


	2. Two: Uncomfortably Adjusting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some limited progress is made but Jason is mostly just missing his Dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Behold an update

The meal is quiet. It’s only the third time they’ve all sat down together to eat – only six days since the Snap, and three since arriving at the compound. Jason is not the most uncomfortable he’s ever been but he misses his family, his brothers, sisters, Alfred. And he finds that today it really _hurts_. Hole in his stomach, words that can’t leave his throat because nobody will understand. Carol and Rhodes are being quiet all things considered, and Br- Banner and Nat eat in total silence as they always do. Half of the food will be put back into boxes uneaten, to be refrigerated, which means Jason only cooks once a day. Cooking is a distraction he finds he needs so he’s been cooking regardless of the lack of need in order to fill the gap left by the emptiness of the kitchen. This morning he’d started to crack 15 eggs into a bowl for omelettes, and was three eggs in before it hit him he might never see any of his family, immediate or extended, again. He screamed for an hour before Steve dared approach and make an attempt at calming him down, unable to get anything more cohesive than “He took my _Dad_!” out of him for hours. He’s been handling the rest of the day fairly well, in his opinion.

The fajitas and salad on the table don’t taste right: not the right spices, wrong table, wrong people. He misses his Dad, and that’s pretty grim when all he can think of is his family and how they’d be plotting and scheming like crazy now, still, probably on around 50 hours sleep between them in the whole week, determined to get their people back. Tim is missing. Damian is – no. No more of this harmful dwelling. “So, what’s the plan now, Captains? And also has anyone seen Thunderer because he hasn’t eaten since we got back, and I’d know.” Nobody appears to have a response. Jay sighs, “Sure, we have a plan, Jay, don’t be so silly,” in a mocking falsetto. Honestly, put a normal hero in a Gotham-type situation... He leaps to his feet and announces, “We get the system running as efficiently as we can. I’m getting in touch with Wakanda to see what info there is on Tim and the tech division – Nat, I’d appreciate your input. Also, someone better have a way of getting in touch with Stark, Strange and my Dad on Titan, or the Pit madness is going to get uncontrollable. Rhodes, get a link to Wayne Enterprises in Gotham. They’re always good in a crisis and as a Gothamite I can assure you that if any of my family is left they’ll be there. If not I need to go back. Gotham must have a Bat presence.”

Carol stands up. “I’ll fly over if you like, check up on the mess. I shouldn’t be long.”

Jason gestures her to go but warns, “Remember that you’ve never been anywhere like Gotham and to be very careful. Just a sitrep, yeah?” Carol nods sharply and marches off. Rhodes looks to be considering something. Jason lets him think, continuing, “Banner, see what you can do with the tech stuff. Bioscanners are a good idea, and if you can get on the frequency I gave you that would be frankly fantastic. All my comm chips are down and we need to be in touch with whatever heroes are left.” Banner nods, seeming to agree with the orders, and begins scribbling in one of the many nearby yellow notepads. They all have little Bat symbols on. Jay avoids looking at them too closely. 

Now there’s just Rhodes idea to address, and of course Steve and Nat. Jason is tossing over what to start with when Nat rises gracefully to her feet are glides off. How she glides and still gives the clear impression that she’s stamping her feet he doesn’t know. It’s maybe a ballerinassassin thing because he’s seen Cass do exactly the same (and Nat’s good but she’s not quite Cass and _gods he’s missing her_ ) on every occasion when she wants peace and Damian sets off over something. Set. Wanted. No, no, still out there, they can come back. They can-

“I was thinking I could get Lex Luthor to combine resources with SI, if Pepper agrees, to establish some way of cataloging the missing people. To answer your earlier problem, Thor and the raccoon are probably either in his suite or in the garage making something,” interrupts Rhodes looking up from his plate (only quarter eaten, the rest to go in the fridge which is rapidly filling) to meet his eyes. Jay hesitates to give a command. Where will Lex stand, if he’s still around, given his stance on Superman (who is around, who is tireless, who’s been rescuing planes and boats for the last six days), and the on-again-off-again friendship he has with Tony and Dad? It would be good to hope for a smooth agreement to teamwork but. But. Who the hell knows these days what anyone will do.

“Okay, go sort that.” He needs to be decisive, to be the Bat, the Red Hood, experienced strategist, not an unbalanced and grieving Jay Wayne, “Steve, do you mind helping me set up some sort of communications between Wakanda, here, WE and whoever else we can manage? I was thinking of taking a few plates to Thor and Rocket on our way over and asking if they have any contributions.” Steve tips his head in agreement. It’s a good enough start, thinks Jay, even if they don’t have a real goal to work to or Batman’s legendary stamina and strategy. They’ve got Captain America, all around great guy with enough skills to be an alright replacement, Banner with his 7 PhDs in whatever it is, Captain Marvel herself, and Colonel Rhodes who somehow kept Lex, Tony and Bruce almost dover during the short time they were all at MIT together. There’s also Thor, but since he hasn’t left his room or conversed in a few days Jason has far less of a read on him. The raccoon is a raccoon from space who talks. 

He’s had to work with worse.

“Hey,” murmurs Steve gently, “We can do this. Let’s go find a tech team.” Jay grins. They’re kindred spirits, really, and he has the feeling Steve’ll be welcomed into the family pretty quickly when things are back to how they should be. Picking up a couple of plates, Steve leads the way to the garages in the search for Raccoon and Thunderer. Jason leaves the kitchen too quickly to hear the beeping of the door scanners as an unfamiliar van pulls up to the gates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments help me remember to write so comments will probably mean a faster update but that isn't a tested theory so don't rely on it.  
> I'm also mildly obsessed with the idea that "Cass and Jay are worryingly reliant on Bruce for basically everything" so it will be a theme be warned.


End file.
